9-13-2026

 “FORGIVEN FORGIVERS”

Text: Matthew 18:21-35 – Pentecost 16

Sunday August 30, 2026

Trinity – Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

       Our text for this 16th Sunday after Pentecost is the Gospel lesson from Matthew 18 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray:  Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that you have paid a debt for each of us that we can never repay.  This enables each of us to be unlimited in our forgiveness when we are hurt by others that they, too, know your forgiveness and can extend that to others.  Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

Did you know that you as an individual are in debt to the amount of over a quarter of a million dollars? If you are a citizen of the United States who pays taxes, your share of the national debt is over $355,000.

At the time of this writing, the entire national debt is over 38 trillion dollars—that’s the number 38 with twelve zeros behind it. It’s an astronomical sum of money that is almost beyond comprehension (https://usdebtclock.org/).

But there’s another debt you owe that is even more immense. It’s your debt to God. You are in debt to God because you owe a penalty—a penalty for sin. In the eternal scheme of things, that debt is way more than $355,000. It’s even way more than 38 trillion dollars! The question is, how are you going to get out from under that debt?

In our text from Matthew chapter 18, Jesus answers that question. But he also puts into perspective the debt of sin that others owe us and how we are to respond to that debt. He does this by telling a story, a parable about a master and his servant, that applies to our relationship with God and with those God has placed in our lives.

2.

First, consider Jesus’ parable. Jesus narrates this story in response to a question posed by Peter, his disciple: “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” (v 21).

No doubt Peter thought this was a mammoth number for forgiving someone, but even so he puts a limit on forgiveness. Jesus replies: “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven” (v 22, alt. translation). I

n effect, Jesus is saying, “If you’re looking for a number, try 490 times!” But even that number is just to make a point. The message is this: When you forgive, there is no limit—just as God forgives without limit.

Jesus then tells a story to illustrate this point: “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents” (vv 23–24).

Now, we won’t grasp the immensity of this debt unless we understand what a talent is. In the first century, an average laborer would need to work six thousand days to earn a single talent. Multiply that by ten thousand, and you have sixty million days of work! No doubt when those around Jesus heard this amount, they either gasped or laughed at its absurd immensity.

The point is that this is an impossible debt to pay. The servant couldn’t pay it.

The story continues: “And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made” (v 25). If the servant couldn’t pay a thousand lifetimes of wages, he would still have to pay what little he had from his one lifetime in slavery.

Amazingly, the servant begs for a time extension: “So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything’ ” (v 26). Of course, it’s ridiculous that this servant thought he could pay all his debt. He apparently had no concept of the enormity of it.

But the master understood that the only way out was through forgiveness. So he forgave the servant this impossible debt: “And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt” (v 27). The master extends forgiveness to the one who is in immense debt to him.

What is the servant’s response to this amazing act of mercy? For one thing, he doesn’t say, “Thank you.” For another, he doesn’t act pardoned, for the mercy granted to him does not flow through him to another.

Jesus continued the story: “But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe’ ” (v 28).

A denarius was a day’s wage, and one hundred of these would amount to about one-third of a year’s wages. That is minuscule compared to the amount owed to the master! Indeed, it is 1/600,000 of the debt that had just been forgiven the thankless servant! The other servant pleads for an extension of time, just as the first servant had done before the master. Yet no grace is given. Instead, the hapless fellow is thrown in prison “until he should pay the debt” (v 30).

When the report of this ignoble act reached the ears of the master, he was furious! “Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’

And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt” (vv 32–34). The master withholds mercy from the one whose heart remained hardened. And that is the end of Jesus’ story.

1.

So what is the meaning of this parable? Jesus always told parables to impart a truth to us to receive and apply. What is the application of this story? Well, Jesus himself makes an application after telling the parable. He says: “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (v 35).

The message applies to our relationships with God and with others. And it all has to do with forgiveness, which is the subject of Peter’s original question to Jesus about forgiving a brother.

First, this parable’s message applies to our relationship with God. The point is that God forgives us the immense debt of our sin. When we break God’s Law, we violate his will and offend him. We come under debt to God, owing him a penalty for our infractions. Justice demands that “somebody’s got to pay” for wrong.

We have done many wrong things—the Bible calls these sins—and so are accountable to pay for them. Our wrongdoing before God puts us in debt to him. What is the penalty for sin? The Bible states: “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). That penalty is not only physical death but also eternal death—eternal separation from God.

This is why our debt is so immense! And like the servant in Jesus’ parable, there is no way we could pay it on our own. It is an impossible debt for us to repay.

So who pays the debt? God does. In the parable, the master freely forgives the entire debt of his servant. But the fact is that in forgiving ten thousand talents, the master paid ten thousand talents. All that money came out of his pocket! This points to the gracious act of God to forgive our immense debt of sin.

It freed us, but it cost him. It cost him his life in the person of Christ. King Jesus takes our sin and bears our debt and pays for it by his death. He goes to the torturers, he suffers hell itself, for us and in our stead. PAID IN FULL is stamped in Jesus’ blood. Your debt of sin is canceled in Christ!

So, first of all, this parable applies to our relationship with God. But it also speaks to our relationship with other people, especially those who have sinned against us. It graphically illustrates what the appropriate response is to being forgiven an immense debt. That response is to forgive others.

In response to God’s unlimited forgiveness in Jesus Christ, we extend forgiveness to others. This is why we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Mt 6:12). Our forgiveness of others is not a condition for God to forgive us, but it is a result of God forgiving us the magnitude of debt for our sins.

The fact is, God is no longer collecting from us the debt for our sins. He has put it on Christ, who paid it in full. In response to God forgiving our debts to him, we no longer collect the debts of others in terms of the wrongs they have committed against us.

To receive forgiveness from God is to become a forgiver of others. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, there’s no limit on God’s forgiveness of us. Accordingly, there is no limit on our forgiveness of the sins of others, whether it be seven times or seventy times seven.

Corrie Ten Boom was a Christian woman who was unjustly imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. It was a horrific experience of forced labor in which she was subjected to inhumane conditions. She especially experienced oppressive treatment by the prison guards. Yet she survived this ordeal, going free when the camp was liberated.

Following the war, Corrie became a popular speaker, advocating forgiveness to heal the scars of war. You may have read her book The Hiding Place or seen the movie based on it.

After one speaking engagement in Munich, Germany, she was approached by a listener to thank her for her message of Jesus’ forgiveness. He reached out his hand to thank her, but as she looked at him, Corrie recognized the face of one of the SS guards from the concentration camp. Her heart felt only bitterness toward him, and her hand froze in unforgiveness. By her own power she did not have strength to forgive this man who had earlier dehumanized her.

But then she remembered God’s forgiveness of her own sins (Mt 18:23–27). She silently asked Jesus for his forgiveness to extend to this man. Trusting Christ’s forgiveness, her arm unfroze, and she reached out her hand. She forgave as she had been forgiven

God Has Forgiven You the Debt of Sin Without Limit, Enabling You to Forgive Others.

We forgive without limit because God has forgiven us a limitless debt. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior...Amen.